Blogging 115: The Blogroll

A blog’s Blogroll plays two main roles. When you add a link to your blogroll you are typically either saying:

  1. “I have found this site helpful, and I would like to share it with you” or
  2. “Here is a blog that covers some of the same subject matter as mine, and if you like my blog you might also enjoy this one.”

So politically oriented blogs tend to include like-minded others in their blogroll, for example. And blogs that are about social media often have blogroll links to others that have a similar focus.

The SMUG blogroll has been rather spartan because I haven’t updated it for about 18 months. Here’s how it looked before I began this post:

So I’m taking the opportunity of this course to both demonstrate blogroll management and to bring the SMUG blogroll up-to-date. Or actually, it’s what it looked like immediately after I did this first addition.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRvd4jJhQr0]

Here are some more blogs that fit both of the above criteria, and which I’m therefore adding to my blogroll:

These are only a Baker’s Dozen of the 230 or so feeds in my NetNewswire feed aggregator, but they’re the ones I think will be most interesting for the SMUG student body. I also added links to some of our Mayo Clinic social media sites (on Facebook, YouTube, our News Blog and our Podcast Blog.)

Also, this course is the first one for which I’m using a YouTube screencast instead of a Slideshare.net narrated slidecast. I’ll post about how I did it in a future course. I obviously have some things to learn to improve the quality of the screencast (and make it a snappier presentation), but I think having the ability to show exactly how to do things instead of narrating still frames will be really helpful in the show-and-tell courses.

Assignments:

  1. Go to the sites linked above and subscribe to their feeds. See Social Media 102 on RSS feeds if you need a refresher.
  2. If you have a blog, create or update your blogroll. You get extra credit points for adding Social Media University, Global.

Add to FacebookAdd to DiggAdd to Del.icio.usAdd to StumbleuponAdd to RedditAdd to BlinklistAdd to Ma.gnoliaAdd to TechnoratiAdd to FurlAdd to Newsvine

Tax Time and Weekend SMUG Class Readings

One of the nice simplifying factors about running a tuition-free online university is that you don’t need to fill out a request for 501(c)(3) status or other federal tax-related forms. With no revenue, the Internal Revenue Service isn’t interested in us. We can focus on our non-profit educational mission.

Alas, the IRS has not shown the same disinterest in my personal life, so in addition to attending some of my daughter’s basketball and volleyball games this weekend, I’ll also be doing this:

So while I’m meeting my obligations to the U.S. Treasury and the State of Minnesota, it’s a good opportunity for you to catch up on some SMUG homework and extra-credit readings:

First, here are the most recent SMUG class offerings, in the Podcasting track

During the past week your Chancellor was continuing his education (and hopefully helped some others with theirs) at the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Summit 2008 in San Francisco. Here are some of those highlights, and while they don’t involve direct homework assignments, you will find them helpful for your capstone project:

I’ll also maybe let you know how long TurboTax took. Of course no self-respecting do-it-yourself on-line Chancellor would do anything but electronic filing. I’ve used TurboTax before (though usually not this close to the deadline), and I like how it carries forward my information from year to year. Hopefully its servers won’t be slammed by fellow procrastinators.

Katie Paine on Social Media Measurement

Katie Paine is giving a whirlwind tour of the measurement landscape. I suggest you check out her blog (previous link) and her company site to dig in deeper. She says her slides are in the attendee packet (although I’m not seeing them.) I may need to follow up with a more in-depth post. She says they are or will be here. I just went there and signed up for a free account and downloaded a previous talk. I’m looking forward to downloading this one.

Katie’s 10 Signs that this is end of the world as we know it

10. I spent more time on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr yesterday than I did on email. (Here is Katie’s Twitter account and here is mine.)

9. Gatekeepers? What’s a gate keeper? Deadline? What’s a deadline? News is instant.

8. A start up company got 100 great marketing ideas for free from Twitter

7. It’s easier to put my message on M&Ms than it is to get it into an A-list blog

6. $0 budget YouTube videos about Barack Obama were seen by 120 times the audience of Clinton’s largest town hall meeting in US history that  cost millions

5. IBM gets more leads, sales and exposure from a $500 podcast than it does from an ad

… (Katie’s moving too fast now…I will ask Katie for the rest of her top-10 list)

1. Measurement is a whole lot easier

Continue reading “Katie Paine on Social Media Measurement”

Media Relations 2008

I’m heading back to San Francisco tomorrow, for the second time this year. I’ll be attending Bulldog Reporter’s Media Relations 2008 conference. Here’s the schedule, which looks really interesting. I’m part of a panel on Tuesday called “Getting Personal:Telling your Story in Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn and More.”

Seems kind of weird to have two colons in a program title. Is that even allowable in English?

I hope to be liveblogging many of the sessions, wireless access permitting. I’m particularly looking forward to:

  • Keynotes by Robert Scoble, Charlie Rose and Duncan Wardle (from Disney theme parks)
  • Katie Paine’s session on measuring online media impact
  • Other technology, new media, social media sessions
  • Mike Moran from IBM’s address called “Doing it wrong quickly: What corporations need from PR in Today’s Transforming Marketplace” also looks provocative.

I’ll be sharing highlights here.